Melted: A MaxTul AU story

Thirteen: A Tale of Two Tors

The next day, Tul was working on finalizing the report on the new deals made at the previous night's dinner when he heard whistles and catcalls from outside his office. He was practically done, so he went to see what the commotion was about. When he opened his office door, he stopped stunned.

There stood Max grinning at Anne and Wanna as they circled him, looking him up and down. Pongpat smiled proudly, and Sukrit even looked on in awe. Max was always handsome, but he usually looked like a stereotypical casually put together writer sitting in a café character. Today he looked like . . . Tul didn't even know what he looked like. He looked hot and cool and . . . Why was he dressed like that?

Finally, Max started getting sheepish at all the teasing. "Guys, you act like this every time you see me in a suit. I can dress properly, you know."

"Yes, we know," Wanna said. "But when you look like this, I feel like I need to protect you."

Even Tul had to smile at that. The idea of timid, tiny Wanna protecting anyone was funny.

"It's true," Ann said. "This is the look that makes people want to fix you up with their children. Go straight to the interview. Don't get tricked into side conversations. No matter how many pictures Khun Natporee shows you of her grandsons."

Sukrit chimed in, "I forgot Khun Natporee is here visiting. Maybe I should escort him to Khun Pakorn's office. She's probably got her spies around. I'm so glad I'm married. She's shown me pictures of her grandsons, and I'm not even gay."

Tul winced a bit at that. So it is true. Everyone knew Max was gay. Even this Natporee woman. He didn' think Max had been lying, but it bothered him that it took him so long to find out. What other things had he missed?

Max laughed. "I'll be fine even if Khun Natporee is here. I haven't seen her in years. She's probably forgotten all about me."

Ann smirked. "She never forgets a handsome face, Max. Whenever she sees Pong, she asks about you. You're on her list, especially now that she also found out one of her nephews is gay, too. Anyway. You better get going. You don't want to be late at all for this one. In fact, it's better to be early but sit pretending that you are leisurely reviewing your notes. Plustor Pakorn won't want to wait, but it will look bad if you seem too eager or anxious."

Sukrit asked, "Are you sure you know where you're going? I can . . ."

He was interrupted by Tul. "I'll take him." Once again, they hadn't seen Tul come in. They just weren't used to him coming out of his office for anything but team meetings, so he still surprised them when he appeared.

Tul headed towards the elevators. Max was about to protest, but stopped when he saw Tul's face. It looked unhappy and worried, so he didn't say anything and nodded to the others on his way out.

When they stepped into the elevator, Max asked. "What's going on. Did something happen?"

Tul didn't look at him, but only asked. "Why do you look like that? You didn't dress like that for any of the other interviews."

Max relaxed. He had been worried something had happened with Tul's quest to find his mother. "I'm going to interview the Vice-chair of Shilapath. Of course, I'm not going to show up in a polo and khakis. I did research about your brother; he likes to be respected, searches for it even because he is so young and still worried about people seeing him as an authority figure. Also, I always dress like this whenever I'm interviewing a high-ranking person."

Tul visibly relaxed. Max noticed how his shoulders stopped being stiff, but he still had the urge to rub them and massage that neck under the hairline. The sight brought him back to the memory of Tul sitting behind him on his motorcycle and how good it had felt to feel Tul relax into him. He pressed his eyes closed to erase that thought and focus on the present.